Second Word of Community Design - Deuteronomy 5:1-5, 8-10

A man was walking along the beach and found a bottle.  He looked around and didn’t see anyone so he opened the bottle. A genie appeared and thanked the man for letting him out.  The genie said, "I am so grateful to get out of that bottle that I will grant you one wish.  I can only grant one."

The man thought for a while and finally said, “I have always wanted to go to Hawaii I've never been able to go because I can't fly.  Airplanes are much too frightening for me.  On a boat, I see all that water and I become very claustrophobic.  So I wish for a road to be built from here to Hawaii.”

The Genie thought for a moment and finally said "No I don't think I can do that.  Just think of all the work involved, consider all the pilings needed to hold up a highway and how deep they would have to go to reach the bottom of the ocean.  Imagine all the pavement needed.  No, that is just too much to ask."

The man thought for a moment and then told the genie, "There is one other thing I have always wanted, I would like to be able to understand women.  What makes them laugh and cry, why they are temperamental, why are they so difficult to get along with....basically, what makes them tick."

The genie considered for a few minutes and said, "So, do you want two lanes or four?"

Last week we began considering the Ten Commandments as God’s Ten Words of Community Design.  In the first Word, we heard that the community was not established by us, but by God, therefore it is not about any of us, but about God.  We heard in God’s first Word, that we are important, because God thinks enough of us to invite us into His community.  We recognized also that God’s community is not a coerced community, we are not forced to be a part of it, the community that God designed is completely voluntary.  Finally, in that first Word, though it is a voluntary community, God says, if you choose to belong to the community, you have to agree to make God your priority.  Nothing can be put before God if you are to live successfully in His community.

We come to the second Word of Community Design this week, and it is neither knowing what makes women tick (though that might help some of us guys live successfully in our homes), nor taking a trip to Hawaii.  However, it has everything to do with the genie.

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.  You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of their parents, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

This Word of Community Design is a reminder that when we live in God’s community, it is about God and not about us.  We are to remember that God is not a genie in a bottle to be uncorked or in a lamp to be rubbed, who will then come out and do our bidding, fulfill our greatest wishes.  God does not work like that.  This Word reminds us that God is the creator and we are the creature, God is the Potter and we are the clay, God designs the community, not us.

In Biblical times, many people in various cultures created idols or images of their gods…these were manmade images created by the hands of men and women, designed to represent their god.  These idols and images were able to completely depict and represent who their god was.  In addition, by creating these images, people believed that they could control or manipulate the idol or image, and thus control or manipulate their god.

As Barney Fife would put it, God takes that way of thinking and nips it in the bud.  So strong is God’s reaction to this way of thinking, that this is the only one of the ten Words that carries with it the promise of punishment for refusing to live within the design that God has set forth.

God says there is nothing in heaven above, on earth below or in the water that can wholly and completely represent who I am.  Don’t create something and say, “that’s what God looks like, and that’s what I am going to worship as a representation of God.”  You know, a few years back, some Christians became outraged at the popular book, The Shack.  Why?  Because in that book God the Father is represented as an older black woman.  To the outraged group of Christians, it was blasphemy to present God the Father with that kind of image.  However, in the book, and I am summarizing and paraphrasing somewhat, God the Father, says to the main character, Mack, this is not what I look like, this is how I am appearing to you so you can handle it.  God does not look like an African-American woman, neither does God look like a wise old white man, as many pictures, including Michelangelo’s famous painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel suggest. 

What happens is that we start worshiping these images, that’s the deal with those who were upset by The Shack.  We get it fixed in our minds that this is what God looks like, and for someone to suggest differently, it offends us.  The problem is that when we try to limit God to one particular description, and anything different offends us, we turn out to be offending God.  Why are we offending God?  Because we are no longer worshipping God, but worshipping God remade into our image…into what we want Him to be.

What happens next, after we start creating images and idols of what we want God to look like, is that we begin trying to make God be like what we want.  Suddenly, like the folks of biblical times, we are attempting to make God be exactly who we want God to be.  We begin to define God’s role in the world…God becomes our genie and we expect Him to do our bidding.  And God will have no part of that.

Remember the story in the Gospel of John, when Jesus had fed the five thousand.  It says that Jesus realized that the people were about to come and take him by force and make him king, and when he saw that was what they were doing, he slipped away so that they could not.  What’s the problem?  If Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords, then why would he have a problem with the people making him king?  It is because, if they made him king, then they would expect him to be the kind of king that they wanted…they would define his role and duty as their leader…much like we have those same type of expectations of those we elect into office.  Jesus would not be manipulated in that way.  It was not for the people to “make him king” it was for them to realize he was their king, and become part of the kingdom he was inaugurating.

What is the danger in making idols…what is the danger in trying to make gods be who we want them to be…it then sets us up as the creator, it sets us up as the designer, and it sets us up as the rule maker…and with each of us different and with each of us thinking we know what is best, it sets the world around us to be what we see around us today…a world in which conflict is continuous, because we always want our way…and that conflict is learned by our children…who then teach it to their children…and we see the suffering of making idols to the third and fourth generation.

This is God’s second Word to His people.  You cannot contain me in a bottle or a lamp and beckon me forth when you want something.  You cannot control me through a piece of carved wood or shaped gold.  If you try you and those who follow you will struggle and fail…but if you come into my community, you will thrive.

God says, “If you need an image of me, look to my Son…not because that is what I physically look like, but because His actions are my actions.  I am God, who frees you from slavery.  I am God, who heals, restores, loves, invites.”

A little boy and an older lady have seen an image of God:

There once was a little boy who wanted to meet God.  He knew it was a long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with Twinkies and a six-pack of root beer, and he started his journey.  When he had gone about three blocks, he met and old woman.  She was sitting in the park, staring at some pigeons.  The boy sat down next to her and opened his suitcase.  He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the old woman looked hungry, so he offered her a Twinkie.  She gratefully accepted it and smiled at him.  Her smile was so pretty that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered her a root beer.  Once again, she smiled at him.  The boy was so delighted.  They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling.  Yet they never said a word.  As it grew dark, the boy realized how tired he was and he got up to leave.  Before he had gone more than a few steps, he ran back to the old woman, and gave her a hug.  She gave him her biggest smile ever.  When the boy opened the door to his home a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of the joy on his face.  She asked him, "What did you do today that made you so happy?"  He replied, "I had lunch with God."  Before his mother could respond, he added, "you know what?  She's got the most beautiful smile I've ever seen!" Meanwhile, the old woman, also radiant with joy, returned to her home.  Her son was so stunned by the look of peace on her face, and asked, "Mother, what did you do today that made you so happy?"  She replied, "I ate Twinkies in the park with God."  Before her son could respond, she added, "You know, he's much younger than I expected!"

God invites us into His community…a community in which we are reminded that we are not the creators, that God is the creator.  God invites us in and says to us, “let me reshape you into My image once again.”  We see the image of God in the Holy Trinity, the Three-In-One that is not in conflict with itself, but in loving relation to Godself.  God’s Kingdom is not one of conflict, but one of steadfast love…the love that God pours out from Himself onto us…and then calls us to pour out onto one another, because as we live together in His community, we are called to look like Him, not make Him look like us.

This morning you are invited to come to a meal that our King, our God, has prepared for us.  A meal that He began on the night in which He showed us what His love looks like.  This meal of bread and cup, of body and blood, is a meal in which God continues the process began at our baptism…the process of reshaping us, remolding us, and remaking us, into His image.  The invitation of this meal is an invitation to come into God’s community…

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.